Facts
In 2011, the Syrian regime brutally repressed opponents’ demonstrations, giving rise to the beginning of the present armed conflict. In 2013, as reported by the United Nations Fact Finding Mission into the Alleged Use of Chemical Weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic, chemical weapons, specifically sarin gas, have been used on multiple occasions during the armed conflict in Syria. In August 2013, in Eastern Ghouta (the suburbs of Damascus), significant quantities of sarin were used in a well-planned attack that indiscriminately targeted civilian areas, resulting in thousands of casualties.
Procedure
On 1 March 2021, the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression and individual victims (one of French nationality) of the chemical attacks filed a complaint and were admitted as civil parties. A judicial investigation was opened for crimes against humanity and war crimes in April 2021. Open Society Justice Initiative, Syrian Archive and Civil Rights Defenders later joined the case as civil parties. In 2021 and 2022 several civil parties testified before the investigative judges and witnesses were heard.
On 14 November 2023, the investigative judges issued four international arrest warrants against President Bashar al-Assad, the president’s brother and de facto leader of the 4th Armored Division Maher al-Assad, director of Branch 450 of the SSRC General Ghassan Abbas and presidential advisor for strategic affairs and liaison officer between the presidential palace and the SSRC General Bassam al-Hassan for complicity in crimes against humanity and complicity in war crimes.
On 21 December 2023, the prosecutor appealed the arrest warrant against President Bashar al-Assad on immunity grounds.
In June 2024, the Investigative Chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal followed the civil parties’ reasoning and upheld the arrest warrant against Bashar al-Assad.
The prosecutor referred the matter to the French Supreme Court (Cour de cassation).
On 8 December 2024, the government of Bashar al-Assad was overthrown during a major offensive by the Syrian opposition, led by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. On the same day, Bashar al-Assad left Syria for Russia, where he is reported to have claimed asylum.
On 25 July 2025, the Supreme Court (Cour de cassation) found that there is no exception in international law to personal immunities in cases of international crimes. As a result, it annulled the arrest warrant against Bashar al-Assad issued in November 2023 but recalled that an arrest warrant for war crimes and crimes against humanity can now be issued since Bashar al-Assad is no longer Head of State.
On 28 July 2025, the French prosecutors have requested a new arrest warrant against Syria’s former president Bashar al-Assad.